This
was Christ Church, the Episcopal Church of Gravesend, New Hampshire. Our
Sunday
school teacher was a strained, unhappy-looking woman named Mrs Walker.
We
thought this name suited her because her method of teaching involved a lot of
walking
out of class. Mrs Walker would read us an instructive passage from the Bible.
She
would then ask us to think seriously about what we had heard - 'Silently and
seriously,
that's how I want you to think!’ she would say. 'I'm going to leave you
alone
with your thoughts, now,' she would tell us ominously - as if our thoughts were
capable
of driving us over the edge. 'I want you to think very hard,' Mrs Walker would
say.
Then she'd walk out on us. I think she was a smoker, and she couldn't allow
herself
to smoke in front of us. 'When I come back,' she'd say, 'we'll talk about it.'
By
the time she came back, of course, we'd forgotten everything about whatever it
was
- because as soon as she left the room, we would fool around with a frenzy.
Because
being alone with our thoughts was no fun, we would pick up Owen Meany
and
pass him back and forth, overhead. We managed this while remaining seated in
our
chairs - that was the challenge of the game. Someone - I forget who started it
-
would
get up, seize Owen, sit back down with him, pass him to the next person, who
would
pass him on, and so forth. The girls were included in this game; some of the
girls
were the most enthusiastic about it. Everyone could lift up Owen. We were very
careful;
we never dropped him. His shirt might become a little rumpled. His necktie
was
so long, Owen tucked it into his trousers - or else it would have hung to his
knees
-
and his necktie often came untucked; sometimes his change would fall out (in
our
faces).
We always gave him his money back.
John
Irving is an extremely effective writer, and the impact of his rhetoric is seen
throughout the novel. The precision of his writing is remarkable- there are few
to no passages of A Prayer for Owen Meany
that do not contain masterful rhetorical strategies that impact the reader. The
above passage, at the very beginning of the story, is particularly effective
because is hooks the reader in, one of a writer’s greatest challenges. This
passage demonstrates that even in the exposition, passages can have a profound
impact on the reader, by introducing the characters, theme, and plot while simultaneously
drawing the reader onward.
The
very first clause “This was Christ Church” already introduces and effective
rhetorical strategy. By saying “this” instead of “it” or “Christ Church was…”,
Irving subtly establishes a first person voice, making the story out to be like
a memory. The story-telling quality is important, as it keeps the reader
interested (everyone likes to hear a good story). Irving then proceeds to
introduce an extremely insignificant character, Mrs. Walker, but manages to
convey her personality as concisely as possible, by revealing her one character
trait, her inattentiveness to the students, in her name: “her method of
teaching involved a lot of walking
out of class”. This is an important device, as it introduces a character trait
without boring the reader through a drawn out description. As the passage
proceeds, a slight paradox is seen, as the teacher tells her students to “think
silently”, even though our thoughts are loud in our own heads. In the last few sentences
of the first paragraph, Mrs. Walker’s dialogue is dispersed between the
narrators personal view of her, connecting the reader to the narrator.
One
effective element of Irving’s writing style on display in the second paragraph:
dashes. Less tiresome than commas, less direct than colons, dashes are
impactful in that they allow the authors voice to flow more actively, while
including important descriptions in context. The remaining impactful elements
of the paragraph are how Irving reveals aspects of Owen’s character in an
entirely indirect, story-telling way. He draws attention again to Owen’s vulnerability
to others, as they “we would pick up Owen Meany and pass him back and forth,
overhead” like an animal or toy. Irving quickly makes it clear, however, that
everyone, and especially the narrator, loves and cares about Owen, as they “were
very careful”, never dropping him. At the conclusion of the passage, Irving
reemphasizes an important trait of Owen, his dwarf size, by mentioning that his
necktie would have “hung to his knees”.
Although
expositional passages are often viewed as not very impactful, John Irving
challenges this notion, by impacting the reader through careful character development.
To develop the characters in a way that is engaging to the reader, Irving
employs numerous rhetorical strategies. He manages to briefly describe the unimportant
characters through their very name, while emphasizing aspects of important
characters through the subtle means of storytelling. He also works to keep the
voice of the narrator genuine, through consistent first person narration and
non-interrupting punctuation such as dashes.
